


Lost Souls

by nomorebluehearts



Category: TOME: Terrain of Magical Expertise, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Crossover, Fantasy, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2019-09-15 10:36:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16931691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nomorebluehearts/pseuds/nomorebluehearts
Summary: Alpha has found himself in the mysterious realm of the Underground. Guided by the voice of a child, he will find his way through to the end, hoping to save his lost friends who have been trapped in the souls of boss monsters. The only thing he has to keep him going is his DETERMINATION to save his friends before they are lost forever.





	1. Prologue

How the hell had he fallen down here? He had fallen, right? It didn’t feel like he had… but then again, TOME had a way of being unique… All he knew was he seemed to be in a vast expanse of space. and he had tried walking, but nothing worked. He was stuck in this Limbo. He couldn’t take his headset off, and he was stuck. Yay…

 

_Hello…_ He turned and saw a child with a blue and pink striped sweater. He couldn’t tell the gender, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was they were looking at him…. but not at the same time they weren’t. They had the Brock eyes going on from Pokemon. But they gave him a gentle smile.   _What’s your name?_

 

“I’m Alpha… Do you know where I am?” The child looked around and nodded.   _You are in a limbo… a dream like state… You and a few of your friends and maybe even enemies have fallen down here. But that’s not what worries me.  A friend of mine said something bad is about to happen, you can’t get out, you have to follow my footsteps through the underground and save them. You see… they think they are monsters, and you have to convince them that they aren’t… but they think they are_ **_boss monsters_ ** _… which is even tougher… do you understand me, Alpha?_

 

Alpha blinked, “Boss… monsters? You mean…. I have to fight them?” They shook their head. _You don’t have to, it’s your choice. But once you start a path, don’t deviate from it, ok?_ Alpha nodded. So his friends thought they were monsters… and he had to save them? That didn’t seem too hard… though now he was probably jinxing himself.

 

The world around him began to lighten up, and Alpha began to panic. _Remember, Alpha, stay determined!_

 

“What’s your name?!” He cried out to the quickly disappearing child. He saw the smile and heard one thing as everything turned to white.

 

_Frisk_

* * *

Hi! I originally posted this on Tumblr, just this part, but decided not to post more until I got further on in the story. That Tumblr is now gone, so I hope you enjoy me putting up this story right here on Ao3!!

 


	2. RUINS Run with Familiar Faces

Alpha sat up, looking around where he had fallen. It was a cave of sorts, with a single light source from above. He saw on a bed of yellow flowers. If he wasn’t really confused, it wouldn't be that bad of a sight.  He stood up and walked around. No way up, and his wings weren’t meant for flying, so he only had one option… walk. There had to be some sort of way out of there, right?

 

He moved on until he came across a patch of grass. It seemed out of place, and he walked forward, then stopped when he saw a familiar purple shadow. He tipped his head to the side as Alpha gave him a grin.

 

“Hey, GC!” Now it was the shadow’s turn to be confused.

 

“GC? I believe you are mistaken. We have never met.” His tone was a happy one, which was strange to Alpha. Gamecrazed was usually monotone, not that it was bad he wasn’t right there, just off.  “My name is Flowey, and you look like you are new here. Would you like me to show you how things work around here?”

 

Hmm… that didn’t seem too bad. GC was always helpful. So what if he was going by the name Flowey… it was still the same GC…. right?

 

Their surrounding flashed and Alpha squeaked as a little red heart appeared in front of his chest. He moved to touch it, but it was like he couldn’t really, but he did feel something… an emotion. Strange…

 

“You see that heart?” GC Flowey said, “That is your soul. And right now it is really weak… all souls start off like that, but you can make it grow strong with LV.”

 

Alpha looked perplexed with that.  “LV? You mean…. levels?”

 

GC Flowey shook his head, “No, silly, it means LOVE!” Ok…… that was really out of character for GC… Frisk’s words floated through his head again…  _ they think they are monsters, you have to convince them that they aren’t… _

 

“So… let me get this straight… GC-” “It’s Flowey.” “-Sorry, Flowey… You look like a friend of mine.  Anyway… so LV makes me stronger?” He nodded. “So… how do I get it?”

 

“Friendliness Pellets, of course!” Oh… well… that was easy, right? GC winked and Alpha saw some white seed-like things. “I just happened to have some right here. Would you like them?”

 

What could go wrong? He stood still as the pellets flew towards him…. and hurt him.

 

Alpha gasped and went to one knee, panting, looking up as GC gained a sinister looking shadow over his face.

 

_ “You idiot… in this world… it is kill or BE killed...” _ This was wrong… what kind of world had he fallen into? and what happened to his friend?!   _ “Why would ANYONE pass up an opportunity like this?!” _

 

Suddenly, Alpha was surrounded by the harmful objects, with no way of escaping. “Why? Why are you doing this, GC?” GC growled.  _ “I am not GC… I am FLOWEY! NOW  _ **_DIE_ ** _!!” _

 

The pellets grew closer and closer, and Alpha thought he was going to die… when suddenly the bullets left… and his health refueled.

 

GC Flowey looked just as confused, and then they both saw a little pink cloud, that then hit him out of the way.  Alpha looked over and saw the source.

 

“What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor innocent youth...” Kindarspirit walked forward, reaching out a hand, but Alpha stayed put, somewhat jaded by what happened.  “Ah, do not be afraid my child.” She smiled, “I am Toriel, caretaker of the RUINS. I come by here all the time to see if anyone has fallen, and here you are!” The more she talked, the friendlier she became, which made Alpha smile.  He took her hand and she helped him stand up. “Come, I’ll show you around!”

 

When she left the room ahead of him, Alpha allowed himself a minute to compose himself over what just happened.  One of his friends just tried to murder him in this place, saying it was kill or be killed, then Kindarspirit, calling herself... Toriel? Helped him out without a second thought, which seemed like her character, but at the same time... He was getting so many mixed messages... But then the words that child, Frisk, floated into his head.

 

_ Alpha, stay determined! _

 

He took a deep breath and then exhaled, then walked forward to follow Kindar... Toriel... However she wanted to be called.

 

She was waiting patiently for him, smiling as he came into the room, leading him to the entrance of the ruins. "It not often that we get humans down here. You are the first in a long time. What's your name, child?"

 

"Alpha, and thanks for saving me, miss Toriel... It's Toriel, right?" She nodded in response.

 

The next room they entered had 6 buttons on the floor and a switch on the wall near a closed door. Kindar Toriel turned to face him, still smiling. "Allow me to give you a tuTORIEL!" She began giggling, and Alpha couldn't help but grin. Who ever Toriel actually was, she had a way with puns.

 

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself~" she breathed to calm herself, then regained her composure. "These RUINS have puzzles throughout them, watch." She walked over the switches in a certain order, then pulled the switch on the wall, opening the door. "See? The puzzles vary in difficulty, some are easy, others not so much. But do not worry, Alpha, my child... I shall guide you safely through."

 

She was really nice... Much nicer than the person in GC.

 

He was curious about one thing, would he have been able to solve it on his own, and seeing a plaque, he read it. 'Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both walk not the middle road.' He blinked a bit, then looked over to the puzzle. "Oh! Ok! The buttons in the middle have a path color around them! So those are the buttons I don't press!" Kindar Toriel applauded him.

 

"Good job! Let us continue!" They walked to the next room. Alpha couldn't help but notice that the place was very.......... Purple... It reminded him of ;Lavendera.

 

"This puzzle I'll let you try. Don't worry, all you have to do is pull the switches I've labeled. I'll wait for you to pull them." She walked to the end of the room where the path ahead was blocked off by spikes.

 

Alpha looked around, seeing a sign and went to read it. ‘Stay on the path.’ He looked back at the switches that were labeled and not. the ones on the path were labeled. “I get it!” He walked over and flipped the switches, putting the spikes down.  Kindar-Toriel smiled.

 

“Good job, Alpha!” She walked through to the next area, Alpha following behind. It was a small room, the only thing of importance here was the mannequin. “In a fight you don’t have to hurt your opponent. You can choose to ACT, and talk to them. Don’t worry, though, I will protect you. Try talking to the training dummy over there.”

 

Alpha walked over to the dummy and as soon as he did, he was teleported to that strange place GC Flowey had taken him, but in front of him were four buttons- Fight, Act, Item, and Mercy. She had said act, so he put a hand over the Act button and a menu showed up. Stats and Talk, so he chose talk, and suddenly he was compelled to speak.

 

“Hello? I was told to talk to you, and I don’t know if you can answer me back, but yea… hi...” He looked awkwardly over to Kindar, who smiled and nodded. “Very good! Do the right thing and your opponent won’t want to fight, and you can spare them!” She walked on ahead, and Alpha looked to the dummy. Sparing… huh? That seems much nicer to do than hurting people like Flowey said. So kill or be killed was a lie… it was going to be tough, but he could do it.

 

The next room was barren for the most part. “The next part is a bit tricky, so I’ll guide you through.” He walked behind her, only to flash again and see, to his surprise, a frog. The menu pulled up again and he acted again.

 

“Um… Hi… Froggit, right? You, uh… I have no idea what to talk about.” The Froggit just looked at him, until Kindar came storming over, a death glare in her eyes, sending the monster away.  Alpha looked over to the Froggit as it hopped away. “Awe… and I was just about to get used to that talking thing...” He walked onwards… to a spike room.

 

Kindar looked to Alpha and held out a hand. “Take my hand, I shall lead you through the spikes.” He looked around her to the spikes then back to her.  “Okay….” He took her hand and she began to lead him through the spikes, they weren’t touching him, they were going down as they walked through them, eventually making it to the other side.  “See? Not too bad.”

 

They walked along to the next room. it was extremely long. Kindar turned and kneeled to Alpha. “I’m sorry to do this, but I am going to leave you alone for now. Go down this long corridor without me.” She stood back up and moved really fast, so fast Alpha didn’t see where she had gone.

 

Alpha looked around. He didn’t see anyone, so… hopefully it was safe, right? He began walking down the corridor. After a while… a surprisingly long while… He reached the end of the corridor, with a couple pillars to around. As he passes, he hears a relieved sigh, and Kindar-Toriel steps out from the lone pillar at the end.

 

“I am so sorry, my child. I wanted to make sure you were ok to continue on without my assistance… and it seems as though you were just fine. Now, I do have one request of you.” She moved forward and handed him a phone. “This here is a phone, it has my number in it, you can call me at any time. But for now, I have to go, will you please stay here?”

 

It was an odd request. So far the only thing Alpha had to be wary of were the flowers, especially ones that talked. But he hadn’t seen the danger yet, but he had no reason to doubt Kindar-Toriel yet.

 

“Alright.” She smiled at his answer. “I’ll call you when I am on my way back!” She waved and left.

 

He sat… and sat… and sat some more, but she never came back. Eventually, Alpha stood up and sighed. “Maybe I need to just… move forward... “ He looked at the phone, deciding it was best he move on.

 

As soon as he went to the next room, though, the phone rang. “Hello! Sorry, my phone got stolen, but I might be a little late on getting to you, something came up. You just stay put, ok?” And she hung up before Alpha could get a word in.

 

“Well, I left now… might as well keep going.” He pressed on, finding candy along the way, and solving puzzles. He met a few creatures as well. They seemed to not be affected by the...whatever this is… since he didn’t recognize them at all.

 

“I wonder… who did I replace here? Was it Frisk? Well, all they told me was to stay determined… and I guess that’s the best advice I can get here.”

 

Soon he came to a passage, seeing a person who was vaguely familiar with. A tall, red skinned man with yellow wings poking out from the long cape he wore, though Alpha swore he could see right through them. He was just… motionless on the ground, doing nothing. He didn’t want to be rude, so Alpha cleared his throat to get the ghost’s attention.

 

“Excuse me? Could I… possibly get past?”

 

The ghost sighed. “Sorry… I’m just… not feeling it right now…”

 

Alpha sighed in return, “Please, Demon King?”

 

“Who?” the ghostly Demon King stood up, looking at the other, hunched over as he floated. “Oh, I bet I look like a friend of yours, and you mistook me for them… I’m sorry…”

 

“What- N-No! Sorry… I… I didn’t mean to offend you… honestly…” Before he knew it, though, he was now in an encounter with this ghost, that was apparently called Napstablook.

 

He looked to his options as music played in the background. Check, threat, flirt….. And cheer. Well the only viable option for him to do was cheer on the sad ghost. So what did he do? He gave a warm smile. Demon-blook gave a slight smile in return, but tears began to fall, and alpha managed to dodge most of them before using cheer again, telling him a simple joke, which made Demon-Blook ever so lightly chuckle.

 

“I… I want to show you something… if… you want to see it…” he said to Alpha, who nodded and watched, as the ghost in front of him began to cry… upwards… to form a hat. “I call it… dapper blook… do you like it?”

 

The boy nodded, and the encounter was over.

 

“Wow… I normally come here because there’s no one here… but… today… I met someone nice... “ He tipped his hat, and floated away, Alpha waving as he flew off.

 

“That was really unexpected… but… fun… I guess?” He really didn’t know what to make of this world, he was out of his element. This wasn’t real life, it wasn’t TOME either… he could tell with all the strangeness, but then again… it didn’t take a genius to tell that.

 

As he wandered onwards, he thought about the others. Would he find Steph, Nye, Kirb? Did they fall victim to this like GC and the netking Kindarspirit, and even DemonKing, who he really only ever saw once or twice. He wasn’t even paying attention when he looked and saw he was at a dead end with a bunch of spiders.

 

Now he didn’t fear spiders, but it took him by surprise that he saw something he would consider ‘normal’ by his standards in a place full of evil flowers and abnormally large frogs. And… “They’re having a bake sale?”

 

He went over to the area and read the sign, which stated the prices and ‘All proceeds go to real spiders’. He went to the webs and decided to see what it was all about. He was prompted to give 7g in one web, and he had just enough to do so. Five spiders came down, one took the money, the other four lowered a purple doughnut onto the web it was decorated with a fine spiderweb. Alpha waved at them, then watched them go away, swearing he saw one of them wave back.

 

He put the doughnut away and went back, going the other way, only having some issues with the residents of the RUINS as he went, eventually seeing a view over the entire RUINS.

 

“Wow… a whole civilization must have been here once… I wonder what happened?” He stayed for a bit, then walked away, finding a withered tree. He touched the bark just to hear a familiar voice.

 

“Child? You found your way here without my guidance?!” She ran up, looking over Alpha’s body. “Are you hurt? You look fine… I guess I didn’t need to worry about you so much… since you are here, though.” She waved a hand to the building behind her, “This is my home! Please, come in and feel at home!” She left him, and he followed, finding the inside wasn’t purple.

 

_ That’s a relief… I was… kinda getting bored of the purple. _ He looked around as Kinder-Toriel guided him to a room.

 

“Please rest up, I am cooling some pie. It’s Cinnamon-Butterscotch!” She bows and leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

 

Alpha went to the bed and flopped backwards on it.

 

_ You look troubled.  _ Alpha jumped, looking around.

 

“F-Frisk?! Where-”

 

_ I’m with you every step of the way. I can’t always help, but you looked… concerned… Are you ok? _

 

Alpha sighed, and flopped backwards again, “Well… they aren’t all my friends… I know Demon King from passing, he’s more Nye’s friend, and Kindarspirit is a Netking- someone who… helped create the world from where I met all my friends… but GC? He… He’s one of my really close friends… quiet, reserved, smart…” He closed his eyes, “The fact that he became someone like…. That? Flowey isn’t a nice person, is he?”   
  


There was a long pause,  _ No… but that’s not his fault… he has no soul… _

 

“Soul?” He looks to his chest, “So… the heart that pops out? Does Toriel have one?”   
  
He heard a sound of agreement,  _ Yes. I can’t tell you why Flowey doesn’t have one, but he doesn’t… And you will learn why eventually, as long as you follow this path. _

 

“... Will I… really be able to save them?”

 

_ Of course! You have the greatest power of all… determination! Now… get some rest, you won’t be sleeping much from here on out… _

 

“Thanks for that…” He rolls over and instantly falls asleep.

* * *

 

Alpha slowly woke up and stretched, yawning, smelling something delicious. He looked around and saw a slice of pie. He smiled and picked it up. He never got why the phone could store things, but he figured, since most things in here can heal him, the pie will really help that.

 

The fighter walked out and looked about, checking in the mirror to make sure his already pointy hair wasn’t too messy, with a comment from Frisk to go along with it.  _ It’s you… _

 

After that he walked around, eventually finding Kindar-Toriel, who smiled when she saw him.

 

“I trust you slept well!” She closed her book, smiling, “Now, I was thinking of all the things we could do! I wanted to plan a curriculum for school and show you around the Ruins a bit more and-”

 

Alpha smiled sadly as she talked. She seemed really lonely… but he had a mission, he had to stick to it.

 

“Um… excuse me?” Toriel stopped and looked at him with confusion. “I… don’t mean to be rude… but… is there a way… out of the ruins?”

 

Her face fell slightly, “You… don’t need to leave, my child…” She opened up the book again, “I was looking up cooking recipes to do and-”

 

“Please… it’s… really important… I need to… save people I care about, and I can’t do it in here…”

 

There was a pregnant pause before Kindar-Toriel closed the book and stood up suddenly, “Excuse me… There’s something I need to do.” She runs off and down the stairs.

 

“Um…”

 

_ Alpha, you need to hurry, she means to destroy your only means of leaving! _

 

“What?!” He ran after her, calling out her name before finally catching her at the door.

 

“You talk of needing to save people... “ she turned to face him, looking sad, “But that is why I am doing this… to save you… So many children have… passed through here… all of them… now gone...” She held her chest, “I swore never again… and I will keep it…” She glared at Alpha, tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry…”

 

Alpha gasped as he felt his soul appear in front of him, and Toriel is there, ready to strike. “Toriel, please!”

 

“No! This is for your own good!” She began to throw the pink clouds at him, and he tried to dodge as many as he could, getting shocked from time to time, with seemingly no end.

 

“Toriel, please…” He said, hand over the mercy button, “I know you want to protect me, but I want- no… I need to save my friends! They are all trapped, and they don’t even know it… here, I have the power to save them… but I can’t save them unless I get passed you.” He looks down, “You’ve been so kind to me, helped me with Flowey, helped me with the puzzles, gave me food and shelter, I can never thank you enough for that generosity… but I have to do this…” his heart began glowing, hitting the mercy button. “So keep throwing clouds at me, Toriel… I won’t give in!”

 

There was silence, and Toriel raised her hands, Alpha standing his ground, waiting to dodge the pink clouds once again… but it never happened. The clouds went around him. “Please… don’t make me do this….”

 

“I’m not making you do anything,” he pressed mercy again. “You are doing this yourself…”

 

Again, no cloud touched him. “I just want to protect you!”

 

“I know… but is trying to electrocute me helping that?”

 

There was a pause, and everything went back to normal. “You… are right.” Kindar-Toriel put her hands down, “Of course you are… you are smart…” the tears that had been threatening to fall finally did, “Well… I guess I can’t stop you… not without hurting you… and I don’t want to… so… just know… if you go through that door… I’m not going to let you back in, you understand?”

 

He simply nodded, then gasped as he was hugged, hugging back briefly before she left the room.

 

“Was that the right thing to do, Frisk?”

 

_ Yes, unfortunately, but don’t worry about her, she can handle herself… and you can handle yourself… let your determination to save your friends guide you… _

 

He walks through the door… to see GC-Flowey…

 

“Well… good to see you again~” Alpha just scowled at him, “Whoa whoa… careful there… Might I remind you?” The sinister shadow fell over his face, “ _ You’re here to save me? _ ”

 

The fighter’s eyes went wide as Flowey began laughing, “What? I can see beyond the parameters of this universe… slightly… and you, my good sir, are not normally from here, are you? I was curious about why you had named me something so… off… so I followed you, and you did the same to a few others, and that's when it hit me, something was off… Napstablook is a  _ ghost _ … Toriel is a  _ goat _ . Last time I checked, they don’t look like humans with yellow hair.”

 

Alpha looked at Flowey, “Then you know you are a friend of mine then… and that I’m going to save him and everyone else here, right?” Flowey began to laugh, sending a shiver down Alpha’s spine.

 

“ _ I’d like to see you try! _ ” *he laughed and then sunk into the ground.

 

“This is… going to be interesting…” He took a deep breath, and walked outside the final archway outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you enjoyed the technically actually first chapter of this. I'm proud of this story, and I hope you all will enjoy it, too!


	3. Snow Days in SNODIN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, because this site does not support fonts, I will be putting the characters Papyrus and Sans in their respective cases, i.e. upper and lower case respectably. I apologize now if it bothers you when a writer doesn't capitalize certain words, but this is how I have chosen to write these two, who are so near and dear to my heart and are easily my- and many other people's as well- favorite characters.
> 
> Please enjoy!

Cold… so cold! Alpha rubbed his arms slightly to get warm and began walking. It was calming, just to walk… until he heard a twig snap behind him. He looked around, no one. “That’s… not creepy…” He continues to walk until he felt a pair of eyes on him.

 

“H-Hello?” A shadow appeared behind him. He turned around slowly, looking at the shadow, who held out a hand. Alpha slowly took it.

 

A fart sounded out, and the figure revealed himself… to look like Kirb wearing a costume.

 

“ah, the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick… works every time~” Alpha had the look of ‘wtf wai, how, huh? Is his font….. Comic sans? Wait could I always read fonts here? what's going on!’

 

“sup? before you say anything,” his eye turns blue, “name’s sans, i’m dressed up as a skeleton, and… i know your name is alpha.” His eyes went to normal, and grins. “keep that look up and your face will stay that way, now… come with me before my brother pops along, i’ll explain things later… now… come on…” He steps around Alpha and leads him to an outpost.

 

“What is-”  


“i said later, now, since that ‘conveniently shaped lamp’ isn’t convenient for anyone but frisk, so… hide behind my sentry post., hurry!” Alpha scurried over and hides.

 

_So… you met Sans?_

 

He whispers back, “Is he always so…”

 

_Fourth Wall Breaking? Yes… Yes he is… Now here comes Papyrus…_

 

“Pa...pyrus?”

 

He looked over to the two now and his jaw dropped. No… way…

 

The man who was Papyrus was… Tall, green… and clearly… a certain roleplaying dragon he knew.

 

“BROTHER! WERE YOU SLACKING OFF AGAIN?!” What was that font?! Why do they have strange fonts!!! Brother?! Alpha held his head and didn't pay attention to the conversation after that.

 

After a bit, he felt a tap. He jumped, only to see… what was it, Sans?

 

“hey, kid, i'm sure you have a skele-ton of questions… i have a few, too. so, if you want to come with me, we can have a chat.” He backed up and held out a hand.

 

Alpha took it, and looked around, “How? Where?”

 

“oh this? it's one of my powers, i am a lot stronger than i look... mainly because i'm lazy.” They were at a bar, monsters about, and a cheerful atmosphere, Sans winked and lead him to a booth and sat down. “this is grillby’s. normally i wait until after a certain point to bring frisk here, but you aren't frisk.”

 

“You… know?”

 

_Of course he knows. It's Sans… kind of… hi Sans!_

 

“yo, frisk, taking a back seat this timeline?” Sans said with another wink.

 

_Yep! Just trying to help._

 

“You can hear them?!” Sans just nodded, grinning.

 

“yeah, i am real special, kid, one of a kind. i know all about the timelines, so i'll help you out, too. but like i said, i have a few questions, wanna help a skele-bro out?”

 

Alpha nodded, “Yeah, I'm up for that.”

 

Sans ordered some food, then he looks to him and sighs, “so, alpha… who is ‘kirbopher’?”

 

He looks down, “Um… wow… um… he's my friend… one of many that are trapped here, apparently. I don't even know how this happened” Alpha looks to his hands, “I… want to save them and get out of here…”

 

Sans nodded, taking the ketchup bottle that was on the table.

 

“i see… explains the two sets of memories…” he opened the bottle, “i see the faces around me, most are the same, but paps? my little bro? yeah… i see that… nylocke guy… but i also see papyrus… i see archy, kizuna, webmaster… just to name a few… but they don't know… but i do… it's weird. in all the timelines, i've never seen this happen.” He drank the ketchup, making Alpha cringe. Some fries were put down before Alpha, and he nibbled at them.

 

“So, you can see… timelines?”

 

“yep, like the butterfly effect… choices you make can have a ripple effect. that's where the timelines of this place come from. so… hurt anyone before coming up here, kid?”

 

Before Alpha could answer, Frisk interjected. _You know he hasn't, don't scare him. I doubt I'd be here if he decided to go genocide._

 

“Geno...cide?” He stopped nibbling, “who… would do such a thing?”

 

Sans was quiet for a bit, his eyes going black. “someone with a lot of LOVE.”

 

He heard that from before, from… Flowey. “LOVE… what is that?”

 

“it stands for Level of Violence. the more you hurt and kill, the higher it goes. it tears your soul apart… and you earn LOVE with exp, or Execution Points” he smiles, “i can see those numbers in humans and monsters. i've seen some crazy numbers from people i care about… people who mean harm… myself… and you…”

 

“Me?” Alpha swallowed loudly.

 

“well, yeah, you haven't killed, i can tell that, but you… are kind of a special case. you are lv 1, but you have exp… is is because of where you come from?”

 

“Could be, I mean… I am in my video game character…”

 

“right, it's… TOME, right?” He sighs, “there is a lot to do, huh? you are going to go down this path to save your friends, which is noble… but it's going to be hard, isn't it? think you're up to it?”

 

Alpha nods, “Yeah… I'll save them… I promise” he blinked and jumped again, once again back at the Outpost.

 

“great! i'll see you in a bit… bro’s gotta see you… and remember… it's papyrus… not nye… ok?” He winked and walked away…. Towards the door to the RUINS.

 

“Does he…”

 

_Yes._

 

“Oh… ok…”

* * *

 

Alpha walked through the snowy wonderland, meeting Pap-nye-rus (Frisk thought it up) and he began threatening him with… puzzles… He explored, met some of the normal monsters of the area, helped un-decorate a deer thing, laughed at bad jokes and even met someone else familiar.

 

“Hi there… could you do me a favor?”

 

“Sure, what’s up Why…. um… who are you?”

 

“I am a snowman, I’d love to see the Underground, but I… I can’t move from here.” She moves her cape, revealing her legs were made from snow. “Could you take a small piece of me with you on your journey?”

 

Alpha smiled sweetly. Such a sincere request. “Yea… I will.” She smiles and gives him her crown.

 

“Please keep it safe?” They wave at each other and part ways.

 

After a few more puzzles, and some… Strange dogs… and frozen spaghetti… he found his way to a small little town with a big banner. ‘Welcome to Snodin’.

 

The town was small and quaint, very homey and, even though there was snow everywhere, it felt warm. The town was small, but filled with monsters. He saw the bar that Sans had taken him to, Grillby’s. To think it was this far from where he had first met Sans, and he had taken them to the building with such ease. Children monsters ran about laughing, people walked and talked about celebrating something called Giftmas. He called to a child, and the one who came was also vaguely familiar in look. Hadn't Kirb asked this guy to be his Gemini Tournament partner?

 

“Hi! Never seen you around here! Are you some kind of new monster?” Alpha thought to himself. Had these guys never seen a human?

 

“Um… yeah? I guess? I wanted to ask you something, is that ok?” The child nodded, “What is Giftmas?”

 

The monster kid gasped and jumped up and down, “HAVE YOU BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK, WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT IS GIFTMAS?!”

 

Monsters started to stare, making Alpha panic until-

 

“hey, kid, it's cool,” Sans walked up to them, kneeling. “he's never left the CORE before, see how he shakes?” The child looked to Alpha and nodded, “he's not used to the cold… you could say he’s-”

 

“Sans, please no-”

 

“chilled to the BONE!”

 

There was a groan and a giggle that sounded at the end of that pun, Alpha putting his head in his hands.

 

“Your funny, Sans,” the monster kid nodded, “but yeah, so Giftmas is a tradition where we put gifts under a tree to celebrate friendship… and something to do with a monster that got a lot of things put on it, and it just wanted to not… have those things on it, so we took them off and that's it… right?”

 

Sans nodded, “right… for the most part…”

 

The monster kid jumped in excitement. “Yay!!! I'm gonna go play now, bye Mr. New Monster!!” They waved with… their whole body, since they had no arms, and ran off.

 

“Was that bad to ask?”

 

“kinda, but he's a kid, so we could pass it off as you never leaving the hot CORE.” He turned to the direction of the opposite side of town. “don't know if the kids told you, alpha, but up ahead? my bro is waiting for you. he is going to want to fight you… well, as well as a pacifist fights, you know?” He sighs, “he has a special blue attack, just warning you now, ok? he's not as good at it as i am, but i thought i'd give you fair warning.” He winks, “you'll be fine, alpha, you're smart, you'll figure it out.”

 

Alpha nodded and stood up, “Alright, time to do this…”

 

“another thing, kid… pick the crazy option, trust me, it's the only way to throw him off.” That was… cryptic… but Alpha nodded and started to walk over.

 

He stopped when the scene became blurry, only Papyrus's silhouette showed.

 

“HUMAN! I… FEEL SO MANY THINGS IN YOUR PRESENCE!” He clutched at his chest.

 

_'This is the reason why Nye is in Papyrus. Dramatic and over the top.’_ Alpha smiled as he thought that, listening to him again.

 

“SO I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS! WILL BE…” he paused, wait, how much had he spaced out? “NO! I… I CAN’T BEFRIEND YOU! YOU ARE A HUMAN!!”

 

“Why not, Papyrus?” Alpha asked, “I mean… I did really enjoy your puzzles… and I had fun… didn't you? Don't people become friends when they enjoy similar things?”

 

Papyrus's jaw fell, but he quickly composed himself, “WELL UM… YOU AREN’T ENTIRELY WRONG… BUT YOU SEE, I WANT TO SHOW UNDYNE THAT I AM WORTHY OF BEING IN THE ROYAL GUARD! THEY WANT A HUMAN, SO… I'M SO SORRY, HUMAN… BUT WE MUST… I MUST!” The surrounding turned black, and Alpha’s soul came out of his body.

 

_'Frisk, I don't want to hurt him!’_ Alpha thought in a panic, what Papyrus said disturbed him. They were looking for humans? Why?

 

_You won't hurt him, you don't need to… just turn on the charm!_

 

“The what?” He said this out loud.

 

“OH YOU MUST KNOW WHAT THIS IS BY NOW!”

 

“N-Not what I meant, but… um…” he looked down at ACT and hit it… and gasped, covering his mouth.

 

*Check.                                       *Flirt

*Insult

 

“WHAT’S WRONG HUMAN, IT’S YOUR TURN!”

 

“I… I KNOW!!!” Did he really have to?

 

_'Is this what you meant by charm?!’_ All he could hear was laughter… a lot of laughter. ' _You are a huge help.’_

 

He looked at it, he didn't want to insult him! He hovered over the Flirt button. He was about to actually do this… how does someone flirt on purpose? He clicked the button.

 

“Hey, um, you know… if you were… spaghetti… you'd be the… best spaghetti… like the tastiest and the most… um… famous around, so good no one could eat it… just bask in its glory…?” He finished with a shrug.

 

Pap-nye-rus just blinked, “OH MY GOD…” oh God he failed, Alpha was going to- “ARE YOU FLIRTING WITH ME?” He nods, “ **_OH MY GOD HUMAN YOU ARE… IN LOVE WITH ME?!_ **”

 

“Um… sure, let's go with that, yeah…”

 

“ **_YOU REVEAL YOUR ULTIMATE FEELINGS?!_ ** BUT… I AM A SKELETON OF HIGH STANDARDS!”

 

“I… can make spaghetti…”

 

“ **_YOU ARE MEETING MY STANDARDS!!!_ **”

 

Alpha resisted the urge to face palm. Wow…

 

“WE NEED TO GO ON A DATE THEN! SO… AFTER I REVEAL MY BLUE ATTACK!!!” There was the blue attack, and blue swords passed him, and he stood still, that was it? He had seen-

 

He gasped, looking at his heart… which was now blue. He couldn't move too much, like gravity had taken a hold of his heart, and he jumped up at the sword coming his way. He couldn't move forward and back, only side to side. And jump.

 

“LIKE IT? I CAN TELL YOU ARE SHOCKED, THIS IS MY BLUE ATTACK!!!” Alpha was freaking out now. He dodged what he could, with intense difficulty, barely catching his breath before going again.

 

“ARE YOU READY FOR MY **_BIG AWESOME SPECIAL MOVE?!_ ** ”   
  
“N-NO!!!”

 

“WELL HERE IT COMES!!!!” Papyrus raised a hand and……. There was a dog. Chewing the handle of a sword. “ **_HEY! THAT’S MY SPECIAL ATTACK! BRING IT BACK HERE!!!_ **” The dog ran away, leaving a dumbstruck Pap-nye-rus behind.

 

“ **_F-FINE!!! I-I DIDN’T WANT IT ANYWAY, I… HAVE AN EVEN… COOLER ATTACK!_ **” He sighs, “Fine… one extra special regular attack, comin’ up...”

 

Regular attack? This was a REGULAR ATTACK? Alpha didn’t know how to solve this conundrum, there was a wall…. Of swords… and he could not jump that high.  
  
_Just Jump!_

 

_‘Just Jump?! I can’t-’_

 

_You’ll be fine, trust me, Alpha!_

 

He nodded and Jumped….. Up and up and up… what?! He was just going and going and going! He looked around, and far away, he could see Sans, one eye glowing blue, a hand up, and a grin on his face. Was he… helping him?

 

When Alpha landed, the two of them went on to Spare each other.

 

“HUMAN… I… I DON'T KNOW WHY, BUT I… I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU ANYMORE… BUT… WHAT DO WE DO NOW OTHER THAN GO ON A DATE?”

 

Oh yea… that sub-plot point… “Well, we could be… friends, right?”

 

Pap-nye-rus gasped, “REALLY?!” His eyes began to sparkle, “WOWIE!  WE MET MERE MOMENTS AGO AND WE ARE NOW IN THE FRIEND ZONE!!! WELL, I CAN'T WAIT FOR ALL THE FUN THINGS WE WILL DO! BUT I GUESS… I SHOULD LET YOU PASS.” His face became serious, “LOOK, HUMAN, UNDYNE… HE… HE'S REALLY EAGER FOR YOUR SOUL… YOU… NEED TO BE CAREFUL… I WILL HELP THE BEST THAT I CAN, BUT YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO GET THROUGH TO THEM, TOO! JUST LIKE WITH ME AND SANS!” He bows, “I GUESS I WILL SEE YOU FOR OUR DATE LATER!!” He dashed away in a very Nye style.

 

There was a slow clap behind Alpha, who turned to see Sans, “good job, kid…”

 

“Yea… thanks to you… you helped with that, right?”

 

“yup.” He winked, “but don’t worry i got your payment in full…” He grinned, “i’m going to make sure kirb remembers this… so he can torment you later about it~”


	4. Date Knight with Living Dolls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry for the long wait, I got busy with life, you know how it goes! Please enjoy this newest chapter, which I had to re-write almost from scratch to get Papyrus all capitalized. Much easier to correct Sans than Papyrus.
> 
> Enjoy!!

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO- DO THAT?!” Sans laughed at Alpha’s reaction. “Please tell me I don’t, Frisk…”

 

_ I went on a date with Paps. _

 

“NOOOO!!!” He groans, “Can I not?”

 

“ nope… i think you have to, right? ”

 

_ Yes… If you don’t, _ their face got super serious,  _ you could never save your friends.  _

 

Alpha gulped at her face and words.

 

“ little harsh, don’t you think, frisk? ” They just shrugged, Alpha sighed.

 

“Fine… I… will take Papyrus… who is also Nylocke… out on a…….. Date…..”

 

Sans burst out laughing, “QUIT IT SANS!!!”   
  
The Skeleton just wiped a tear from his eye and sighed. “it’s alright, just… go and have fun. paps is… well… he has, in his eyes, never had a friend outside of me, his own brother. he has more than he thinks, but be a pal and show him a good time, and maybe you can open his eyes to how many he actually has?”

 

Alpha nodded, “That, I think I can do.” And he walks away.

 

_ Think he can do that? This is Papyrus here… _

 

“which will make this easy for him. if alpha just stays himself and goes with the flow, he should be just fine…”

* * *

Alpha sighed, walking up and finally seeing Pap-nye-rus, who was just standing outside, tapping his foot at an overly stuffed mailbox.

 

“SANS YOU NEED TO GET YOUR STUFF TOGETHER AND CLEAN THIS BOX OUT!!!” He groaned, then looked over. “OH! HELLO, HUMAN!!” He gasped, “DON’T TELL ME YOU ARE READY FOR OUR DATE?!”

 

“I… don't think ready is the… right term to use-”

 

“EXCELLENT!”

 

“Excellent?”

 

“I AM READY WHEN YOU ARE!! LET ME TAKE YOU TO OUR DATING LOCATION!” He takes Alpha's hand and guides him all over Snowdin… only to bring him to where they started. “TADA! MY COOL ABODE!” Alpha stifled a giggle, it came out as a snort as Papyrus walked in, quick to follow.

 

It was a nice small place, second floor had no rails, but it looked fine, with two doors, one covered in stickers, the other…. HAD FLAMES COMING OUT OF IT?!

 

The bottom floor had a couch, a table, a tv playing something with a box with arms on it, and an archway into the kitchen. On the table was a sprinkle-covered rock on a small dish, which Alpha walked forward to look at.

 

“THAT IS SANS’ PET ROCK, HE NEVER FEEDS IT SO I DO IT FOR HIM!”

 

“Um… it's a rock… if… it could eat the sprinkles… wouldn't it have done so by now?”

 

There was silence, oh God did he say something wro-

 

“BY ASGORE’S BEARD YOU'RE RIGHT!” What? “I KEEP FEEDING IT SPRINKLES-” yeah because it can't- “WITHOUT ASKING IF IT LIKES THEM OR NOT!!”

 

……….. Alpha has come to the conclusion that Papyrus it too good and pure for this world and must be protected.

 

“LET’S GO LOOK FOR FOOD FOR HIM!”

 

“You sure it's a he?”

 

“VALID POINT.  **FOR THEM** !!” He goes into the kitchen, Alpha followed behind.

 

The kitchen was almost average, everything was in its place… except for… “Papyrus? Why is the cabinet under the sink so… tall?”   
  


“OH?’ He looks over to it, “TO PUT MORE STUFF IN IT! LOOK!” He goes over to open it up, and a little white dog appeared and ran out with a sword. “ **AGAIN!?!?!?!** ” He ran out the room, making Alpha laugh.

 

A cool breeze brushed past Alpha, and he looked around. It was… coming from the cabinet? He looked around, he didn’t see anything that could have produced it, so he walked forward and went into the cabinet.

 

This was… bizarre… a room that didn’t seem to fit in at all with Sans and Papyrus’s house was beyond the cabinet door. A broken building and discarded items were all over this cave like place, and two huge doors.

 

“YOU CAME IN HERE? WOWIE…” Papyrus came in behind him and looked around. “I DON’T KNOW THIS PLACE… STRANGE…” He crossed his arms, “I’M GOING TO HAVE A TALK WITH SANS…” He turned to leave, when the door in the broken building opened on their own.

 

“Or… we can find out stuff in this place… and then go out?” Pap-Nye-rus seemed unconvinced. “Well, on dates, people… skeleton or not… do an activity together.”

 

“IS THAT TRUE HUMAN?!”   
  


He nodded, “Oh yea! Food or a walk… or discovering what’s hidden in your kitchen cabinets.” Well… maybe not the exact last one, but close enough…

 

“ALRIGHT! WE SHALL EXPLORE…  **TOGETHER** !!!!” He walked forward and into the room, Alpha following behind.

 

What they encountered was a… mostly empty room. In the room stood a lone Figure… or rather… a statue… of-

 

“Saturndiva?” Alpha walked up to get a closer look at the fighter dressed in uncharacteristically pink clothes that did not suit the tough persona he had grown so accustomed to… Instead of arm blades, there were long ribbons, and she did not move an inch.

 

“WAIT A MINUTE… I THINK I KNOW THIS FIGURE…” Nye thought a moment. “YES! UNDYNE AND DR. ALPHYS WATCH HER ON THE TV! SOME HUMAN THING CALLED MEW MEW... SOMETHING SOMETHING…”

 

“Mew Mew… huh…” He looked to the other, then instantly regretted it as he felt a chill down his spine. Alpha turned back, then jumped as he saw Mew looking right at him, still not moving. “Ah! It’s looking at me!”   
  


“WHAT HO? DON’T BE ABSURD HUMAN, IT’S A STATUE! IT CAN’T-” He looks longer, then reaches over, and scratches its ear. It shook.

 

“You were saying, Papyrus?”

 

The Skeleton ‘Knight’ looked to Alpha, then back to the now smiling doll. He did it a couple more times, hearing laughing, until-

 

“ENOUGH!!! ENOUGH!!!! ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!” They both stepped back. “DON’T TOUCH PEOPLE YOU DON’T KNOW!!” Her face got cute in a blink, “Besides I’m ticklish!”

 

The two looked at each other before talking to the possessed doll. This was… weird… Was this being like… possessed?

 

“SO! ARE YOU A NEW FRIEND WE CAN HAVE?!”

 

Mew Mew looked at him, “......NO!!! Uhhhhgg! All I want is to claim this body as mine! But it resists!!! Why? WHY?!?!?!?!” She gasped, “Maybe…. YES!!! FIGHT ME!!!!”

 

“But-”

 

“BOTH OF YOU!!!!!!!!”

 

“WHAT?!” Everything went black once more, and Alpha and Pap-nye-rus were standing on one side of the room, Mew Mew on the other. His companion was free to move, but, much like with his fight with Papyrus minutes before, Alpha found his body hard to move, but not like before, his heart was two different colors, one half red, the other blue.

 

_ This is weird… _

 

Alpha looked over where he heard Frisk’s voice. “Weird…?”

 

_ This is not how my date with Papyrus went… in fact, I don’t remember this at all… weird… how are you supposed to do this one? _

 

“You never experienced this?!”

 

Papyrus looked confused as Alpha- to him- talked to no one.

 

_ Well… hmmm… maybe there was a switch I needed to flip… _ Frisk chuckled.

 

“Switch? What?” He groaned and looked to Mew Mew Saturndiva. “Nevermind! Papyrus, ever seen this heart power before?”

 

“ME? NOT THAT I KNOW OF… I MEAN, I’VE SEEN BLUE AND RED SEPARATELY, AS WELL AS GREEN, YELLOW, PURPLE… NEVER TWO AT ONCE. I’M SORRY...”

 

So he would have to figure this out on his own, huh? Well… no time like the present.

 

“Why are you ignoring me?”

 

“Why do you want us to fight you?”

 

“So I can feel pure anger! Conflict! I need it!!!” She threw balls right at him, and he still couldn’t move.

 

“Oh no…” If only he could use his shield! That’s when he felt something strange in his heart… or… was it two? He reached out to the side and side stepped.

 

Papyrus felt his jaw drop. “WHAT IN THE NAME OF ASGORE’S BEARD IS  **THAT** ?!”

 

Alpha looked over as the orbs passed, and they gasped. Standing before them… was himself. One clad in all red, the other looking just like he did when he first logged into TOME, all blue, save for his hair. They mirrored each other’s movements, so it wasn’t really two people, it was still just Alpha, but this was a trip and a half.

 

“That’s weird…”

 

“HOW DID YOU DO THAT?! WHY ARE THERE TWO OF YOU, HUMAN!!”

 

They both looked at Paps, “Yea… like I know…” They spoke in stereo, making the ‘skeleton’ look between them. “Just pick one, Papyrus, it’s still me, just mirrored…”

 

He turned back to Mew Mew, who waited for them. There wasn't much he could do… his attempts at talking to her was useless… she didn't want to do anything… so he bit his lip and used the Fight button… which did nothing.

 

“Your attacks are useless! But they do annoy me…” she gasped, “DO IT MORE!!!”

 

“But I-”

 

“DOOOOOO IIIIIIT!!!”

 

And so he did… reluctantly, dodging and splitting when necessary to the cheers of Papyrus.

 

“ **GO HUMAN** ! I JUST WISH YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO HIT HER…”

 

“Same, Pap… but she isn't listening to a word I say… maybe if I can wear her down she can open up?” The other nodded in agreement and they continued until Mew Mew finally stopped.

 

“Why… why am I not fusing?! Am I… doing something wrong?”

 

Alpha thought, then snapped his fingers and went to talk.

 

“THINK SHE WILL LISTEN NOW, HUMAN?”

 

“No doubt in my mind.” He pressed talk.

 

“Mew Mew… you know… to me, you look like a magical girl. Where I come from, magical girls exist to protect and show love and kindness… defend the defenseless, fight darkness and uphold justice!” He got more enthused as he continued. “Maybe, anger isn't what will help you… but love?”

 

Pap-nye-rus clapped, “WHAT A BEAUTIFUL SPEECH!”

 

Mew Mew thought. “Love… what is that? Can you… show me?”

 

Alpha nodded, spared her, and the room turned back to normal.

 

“So… warm!! So this is love? It feels nice!” She giggled, “thank you, human… you too, skeleton… I had come here to be alone… but I gained a friend and new understanding… thank you…” she flew away.

 

“WELL… THAT WAS AN INTERESTING DATE…”

 

“No, Papyrus… it was an adventure…”

* * *

They walked outside the house, “WELL… I HAD FUN… AND I MADE A NEW FRIEND IN YOU, HUMAN!” He hugged Alpha, “BUT YOU ARE RIGHT, WE CANNOT DATE… WE ARE TOO CLOSE OF FRIENDS FOR THAT!!” He hands him a piece of paper. “HERE, FRIEND, A NEW NUMBER FOR YOUR PHONE! CALL ME ANYTIME! OH! I SHOULD GO TELL UNDYNE ABOUT MY NEW FRIEND! I WILL SEE YOU LATER!!” He ran off.

 

_ You have gained a new friend… you continue forward at last, on your quest to save all of them… it fills you with… DETERMINATION. _


	5. Dying to visit WATERFALL

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Back to action! I have finally posted all the chapters I finished ages ago. Now it's a matter of me typing up my story. I have gone over it in my head multiple times. It's not like i DON'T know how this story will end, but its a matter of putting fingers to keyboard!
> 
> Enjoy the next chapter!!

Alpha continued on his path, watching as the cold turned quite comfortable and the snow turned to blue walls with glowing rocks.

 

“cool, huh?” Alpha jumped and looked at the sentry station, with Sans there, which made Alpha look back and forward. “what? i have shortcuts, alpha… remember?”

 

“Oh yeah… right. Sorry…” he scratched the back of his head. “So… why are you here?”

 

“well, if you were frisk, i'd take you to grilby's and i'd be all ominous… but we already did that… but i will say this… in this world, there is no FUN value… no room numbers… no saves… no reset… all of this is real… not code…”

 

Alpha looked confused, “Not code? So this was a game?”

 

“yup, just like TOME. this place is alive. so much love was put into this game, so many thoughts and feelings were put into this game,” he chuckles, “which should be no strange thing, considering who you know.” Alpha nodded, knowing he meant the AI of TOME, “now… like I said, there is no longer a FUN value, numbers that let certain things happen and not others… so let me make this clear…”

 

Everything went still… all Alpha could focus on was the now black sockets of the clearly skeleton before him. This was no longer Sans mixed with Kirb… this was pure Sans.

 

B E W A R E  T H E   M A N   W H O  T A L K S   I N  H A N D S

 

In a blink, everything went normal again, like nothing happened, except Alpha looked traumatized, and Sans was back to his hybrid Kirb form.

 

“huh, weird… it's like that was all me and not kirb at all…” he looks to Alpha, “you ok?”

 

Alpha just nodded, “B-Better go… see ya, Sans!” he continued on… but not far. He found a patch of long grass and began to go through it when he heard the clanging of metal, which made him stop and look up. A monster clad in armor looked down and summoned a spear and readied to throw it.

 

“UNDYNE!!” They stopped and turned to Papyrus, who walked up. They talked for a while about him, but he only heard what the sentry said. “BUT THEY ARE… FRIENDLY! I-” He looked down, “I understand…” Undyne walked away.

 

Breathing a heavy sigh, he walked out, only to be joined by the Monster kid,  the one who he had met earlier.

 

“WHOA!!! Mr. New Monster! Did you see how Undyne looked at you?! Oh I would have loved to have been you in that moment!” Was he… a fanboy? “Let’s go see if we can get closer!!!” He began to run away, but tripped and fell, then got up unphased and ran again.

 

Alpha continued on, looking around at the beautiful gems all around, the sound of the rushing water, it soothed him in a way that no other thing could. He met some new monsters on the way, flexing and getting clean with them all, even asking one of them about the strange plants, finding out how to solve the puzzle with their help.

 

Eventually he came upon a room with no exit, there were flowers and the room was lit up by rocks that were almost like stars. Alpha walked by to hear the wishes of the monsters in the underground… which made Alpha sad. They were trapped down here? He had heard whispers of a barrier, but he didn’t know much.

 

_You will learn up ahead, Alpha…_

 

Alpha blinked, “Where? There’s no door… no way out…”

 

_You aren’t looking in the right place…_

 

He pouted, “Cryptic again, I see, Frisk… thanks…” Looking around, then saw the telescope and decided why not. He looked through the lense, but there seemed to be something blocking his view of the gems, and in moving the scope, the words, ‘Check Wall’. He did just that and he sighed, “I was doing ok with the puzzles in Snowdin and the RUINS.. I need to do these next ones on my own…”

 

_You say that, but I don’t think we have one for a while… maybe one more…_

 

Alpha sighs and continues forward… seeing plaques on the wall. Frisk helped him read them, since he was having issues deciphering the text, and it made him curious once he got to the end, pulling out his phone, he tried to call Papyrus… but he didn’t answer. “I’ll see if Sans knows more, then…”

 

He takes a small raft to the other side and continues down, until…

 

THUNK!

 

Alpha jumped back and looked around. He saw Undyne again, and they were looking at him. They raised a hand and more spears showed up and flung themselves to his location.

 

“Holy shi-” Before he could continue the swear, Undyne aimed a spear right at his feet, making him jump. “AAAAH!”

 

“ _No swearing, Human! Now give up and give me your soul!”_ That voice! No… it couldn’t be… but he was already…

 

Alpha shook his head and began running as fast as he could to the end of the dock, making a break for the grass. He panted, but tried his best to keep low and quiet as he heard the clanking of the other’s metal armor come closer and closer… until…

 

Undyne moved to grab and pulled up his target, revealing Monster Archy. He growled in annoyance and put him down and walked away. Alpha crawled out the bushes and eventually got up, panting still, his heart racing.

 

“OH MY STARS NEW GUY!!!” Monster Archy ran out, “He touched my face!!! I’m never washing it ever again! Man… that could have been you if you had moved over enough…” He runs along once more.

 

“Y-yea… unlucky… me…” He continues onward, taking time to poke the crystallized cheese before moving on…

 

He felt a strange sensation take him over...For he found a door… an out of place door, lacking color amongst all the blue.

 

_I don't know about that door_ , Frisk warned him as he approached.

 

“I'll get out as soon as I can… don't worry…” he opened the door and went in.

 

The room was all grey… and Alpha… was alone… he couldn't tell if Frisk was with him or not… he could tell that there was an ominous air about the room… something… familiar… Almost like… when he encountered the virus for the first time...

 

He walked forward cautiously, eventually seeing a melting figure… he was… smiling? Why? He looked in pain.

 

“Hello?” He walked forward, and then-

 

He gasped, eyes opening to the blue area he was in before… no grey… grey? There was grey? Alpha rubbed his throbbing head and looked around. What just happened? Nothing was out of the ordinary… was there supposed to be? Something seemed wrong, but it didn’t make sense… what had he missed?

 

He just walked forward, looking up and seeing Sans… SANS! What ever funk he was in, Sans seemed to break him out of it. “Sans!!”

 

“hey kid i-” he looked at him, then narrowed his eyes. “what did i warn you to do before leaving me at my last post, kid?”

 

Alpha thought for a bit, “Um… It was… oh yea… Beware of a man who speaks in hands, right?” Sans nodded, “Well, I did, Sans, I think I would have remembered if I had.”

 

He looked unconvinced, “frisk?”

 

_He’s telling the truth as far as I know._

 

He sighed, “alright then, i need to check some things out… but you look like you’ve seen a ghost.” He winks, “i’ll treat you to some nice cream if you want?”

 

“I… am kind of hungry all of a sudden… I swore I just ate…” Sans goes up to him and touches him, teleporting them to the Nice Cream guy and he bought Alpha 4, to which he ATE THEM ALL.

 

“Careful, alpha, you could get sick…”

 

“Sorry… I’m just… really hungry…” He sighed.

 

They sat in silence for a bit, then alpha perked up, “That’s right! I wanted to ask you about some stuff I saw on the wall before coming here. It was a bunch of things telling me about some war between humans and monsters? Can you tell me about it?”

 

Sans nodded, “i mean, there are more things talking about it… but I’ll tell you the basic jist.

 

“a long time ago, humans and monsters lived in harmony, then everything changed when the humans attacked-”

 

“Sans, this isn’t Avatar the Last Airbender!”

 

Sans laughed, “yea yea yea… but it’s still true… we did, then the humans attacked us, fearing our power… but we were actually nothing to fear. all the souls in the underground can barely scratch the surface of the power of a single human soul, but that’s also the human’s greatest weakness… the soul persists… determined not to give up. i’m sure you remember me and pap’s magic colors are blue, there are different colors of magic and heart, which are defining traits for those people. red, you and frisk, is **Determination** , orange is **Bravery** , yellow is **Justice** , light blue is **Patience** , normal blue is **Integrity** , green means **Kindness,** and lastly, purple is **Perseverance**.

 

“as you can tell, we monsters did a lot of research into souls. not all souls consist of mostly one color usually, sometimes some people are mostly one color or the other, monsters can use magic in that color, but our souls are white.”

 

“You know a whole lot about this stuff Sans…”

 

“i get around.”

 

“Sure you do…”

 

“yup.”

 

“Fine.”

 

They chuckled together after that. “so… it doesn’t really matter to the story, but fun fact… your soul is pure determination… which means you will stop at nothing until you get what you need, like saving your friends…

 

“but the humans were afraid of what happens when a monster gains a human soul, since it persists after death. because if it does happen… they become a god among humans and monsters… so they drove us under Mount Ebott, and sealed us away with a barrier…”

 

“So… everyone is trapped down here?” Sans noded, “That’s… horrible… I mean… people fear what they don’t know… and it sounds like, if they had gotten to know you all, they’d see most of you are nice…”

 

“most?”

 

“UNDYNE IS TRYING TO KILL ME! Oh, speaking of Undyne… Is he….”

 

“zetto? yea… trust me, it’s weird, when undyne is really emotional or just… her usual self, really… i can see flashes of what she is seeing… it’s weird being in two places at once, how come Kirb decided to have two accounts?”

 

“So he could relax and not work on the game he helped create all the time… Kirb was his getaway…”

 

“ah… i see… well… i kept you long enough… you have to keep going…”

 

Alpha got up and stretched, “Thanks for the Nice cream… see you later!” He walked away.

 

Sans sighed, “Gaster… what did you tell him… and why doesn’t he remember you?” He starts walking away, “maybe i should have told him about the seven souls, too… eh… he’ll find that out later…”

* * *

After walking a bit more through the glowing pools, awkwardly walking past a giant Octopus called Onion-san… that looked like Asterob… even singing with a very shy monster, not too much, but enough to give her confidence, and getting an artifact stolen by a dog AGAIN (why does he keep doing that), he was confronted by Zetto-Undyne, and fell down.

 

Groaning, Alpha sat up and looked around. It looked like he was surrounded by garbage… “Great…” he got up and walked around a bit, picking up some food for later, but was stopped by… a striking dummy?

 

“Can I get-”

 

“No way!!! I’m not letting you go anywhere! You said horrible things to my sibling in the RUINS!” Sibling in the ruins… what? Wait… “They left their host AND IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!” And the area went to the arena.

 

“Look, I didn’t-”

 

“STUPID!!!!” He was then shot at by… many canons… from heads…

 

“WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING?!”

 

“Oh those? Those are my headcanons-” So it was Sniperwheel he was hearing. “And in my headcanons… YOU DIE DIE DIE!!!!” He dodged still… but he was stuck. He couldn’t escape…

 

“H-HELP!!!!”

 

“Don’t even, an evil human like you can’t-” drip… drip… drop “What is this… acid rain?! AAA!!! It burns!!!” It runs off.

 

“Um… oh… I’m sorry…” Alpha gave a huge grin when he sees the familiar face of Demon-Blook.  “You looked like you were having fun… but you friend ran away, I’m sorry…”

 

“Don’t be, Napstablook, It’s good to see you again.”

 

Napstablook looked confused, “You’re… happy to… see me? No one ever is…” He gave a slight smile and turned away, the arena going away. “Well… my house is up ahead if you want to come over... “ He floats away.

 

He followed and they came to 2 houses, one where the lights were on, the other was not. They were an almost mirror of each other, just different colors. It was nice and simple, it fit Napstablook. He walked in and he hung out with him. He found out that he wanted to be a DJ, and they lay on the floor, thinking of nothing. It was nice to do, for some reason he felt like he had a lot of things on his mind… what they were he didn’t know… but this clearing of his mind was great.

 

He said his goodbyes to Napstablook, smiling at him before going onwards. The nest room was easy. Light up the path to find the way, and run from the strange place that was apparently Temmie Village….. Filled with Rockoons.

 

_Who was that guy?_

 

“A hacker from my game, really annoying, but Kirb says he’s got a good heart, but he’s just afraid to get hurt.”

 

_Poor guy…_

 

“I think he has friends, though… I just hope he’s ok… I have a lot more people to save than just my friends… Demon King, Asterob, Sniperwheel, Rockoon… who else knows…”

 

_So you have to stay determined… and get passed Undyne…_

 

“Yea…”

 

He continued until he came to a dead end with a single Echo Flower. He went up to it and touched it to listen to what it says.

 

‘Behind you.’

 

Alpha turned and gasped. There stood the fully armored Undyne.

 

“You are a slippery one, aren’t you? Well now I have you…” He takes a step forward, “Seven… Seven human souls… so we can break the barrier…”

 

Seven? 

 

“We have six so far,” oh no… “You’ll make seven, human… King Asgore will absorb the souls and break us free from the barrier! All of the monsters down here will be free! Your soul… the final soul… is what we need to be free… our hopes and dreams… all of them fall onto me! I will not fail the Underground!” He created a spear and charged forward to Alpha. Now he really wished he had a shield.

 

“UNDYNE LET ME HELP!!!” Monster Archy dashed out in between the two people, making Undyne stop in his tracks. The Monster Kid looked around, then to Alpha, “Oh! Mr. new Monster! Undyne is right there! You can watch him in action now!”

 

Alpha chuckled nervously, “About… that…” He looked to Undyne. Undyne’s fist was shaking with fury, now that Alpha was closer, he could see one of the arms was actually made fully of mechanical parts, just like Zetto’s older model arm.  He used said arm to grab the monster kid and drag him away.

 

“That was a… thing…” Alpha looked to the side, “Is it true? Seven souls to break the barrier?”

 

_In theory, yes…_

 

“What do you mean?”

 

_You will see… and learn…_

 

That made Alpha gulp as he began to walk along a now lit path that he hadn’t noticed before, passing the Echo Flowers… more wishes to see the surface…

 

_There is a prophecy, an angel who has seen the surface will return, and the Underground will go empty…_

 

“An angel? Was that you?” He just heard Frisk laugh.

 

_I never returned… I just came…_

 

Onward they went until they came across a bridge, halfway across, Monster Kid came walking up.

 

“Hey… so… you… you’re human, right?” Alpha nodded, “I… I see… I… I knew it all along… so… we are enemies right? But… I can’t hate you… you seem… so nice… Say something mean to me so I can hate you!”

 

Michael flinched. Even if he wasn’t given the choice… he would never…

 

“Sorry, I can’t do that…” He gave a sad smile. Monster Kid just… looked at him, then down.

 

“Me… me either… it’s… not nice to call people names… monster or human…” He backed away slightly, “I should go,” he turned and began running, but tripped on an uneven plank and held onto the edge so as to not fall off as Undyne got to the other side of the bridge, witnessing the fall. “H-Help me!!!”

 

Alpha leaped into action, ignoring Undyne at the other side of the bridge, he ran forward and went onto his stomach, reaching with both arms and grabbing the child and pulling them up as hard as possible. Once he was back on the bridge, they both panted, the Monster Kid looking between Alpha and Undyne, then stood up between them.

 

“Y-y-yo… if you want… to hurt my friend……. You have to go through me!” Alpha looked in shock at Monster Archy, then to Undyne, who took a few steps back and ran back the way he came.

 

“Thank you for saving me… I guess… not all humans are like the humans in the past… huh?” Alpha smiled, nodding.

 

“And not all monsters are evil creatures… all the ones I’ve met properly, so far… have been nice to me…” That made Monster Archy smile.

 

“I really should get home… See you later?”

 

“Maybe.” Monster Kid waved with his body, how had he held on, he had no arms, and walked off the bridge then ran once he hit solid ground.

 

“So… what now?”

 

_We stay determined… and continue forth…_

 

And he did, until he came to a mountain path, and atop stood Undyne.

 

“I don’t know what game your playing, but it ends here… Well… you are the last soul we need… and as tradition states, I should tell you the history as to how we got down here…” He takes a breath as to start, then pauses.

 

“You know what?” He takes off his helmet and throws it at Alpha, who squeaked and dodged it. “SCREW IT!!! YOU’RE ABOUT TO DIE ANYWAY, SO WHY SHOULD I TELL YOU A GODDAMNED THING?!”

 

“What was that about swearing earlier?” He raised an eyebrow at the exposed Zetto-Undyne, who blinked, then growled, “Is it a do as you say not as you do thing?”

 

“SHUT UP!!!” he groaned, “You are annoying human… Man… I thought humans were so cool with their giant robots and flowery swordswomen-” “-That’s not-” “-Alphys showed me those history books, so they must be true!” “That’s clearly Manga-” “But you?! You are a coward! Hiding behind that innocent monster, messing with Papyrus making him think you are a good person? Well guess what! Your existence here is a crime! Punishable by death!” He jumped down and the area turned black, Alpha, so used to his soul being exposed like this, barely flinched this time.

 

Undyne waved his spear, and his soul turned green. Green? Sans said that meant kindness… seems a little off for who he was encountering, but he didn’t really know Undyne so there’s that…

 

And then he realized he couldn’t move, just spin in a circle. “Wh-What?!” He looked to Undying, who was smirking.

 

“No running away now! Now DIE!!!” He threw a flurry of spears at him.

 

“They’re going to hit me!”

 

_No they aren’t, lift your hands in the path of the spears!_ He does as Frisk tells him, and right as he does so, his Orion shield shows up, blocking the spears. _Hey, No fair! Mine was just a wall!_

 

“It’s my Orion Shield!” he grinned, feeling more confident now. This he could work with.

 

“Well… looks like I have my work cut out for me… a challenge…” Undyne grinned and walked over to a boulder….. And suplexed it.

 

“Wh-Why’d you do that?!”

 

“BECAUSE I CAN!!” He attacked over and over, Alpha blocking most of the spears. He almost got hit when his shield disappeared and his heart went back to normal.

 

_RUN ALPHA!!_ Alpha nodded and ran past Undyne, breaking the fight up. He could hear Undyne give chase, but he refused to stop.

 

His phone began to ring as he rounded the corner, and he picked it up, “H-Hello?!”

 

“HUMAN IT IS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS! I HAD THE BEST IDEA! YOU… ME… AND UNDYNE SHOULD ALL HANG OUT!!!” Was he nuts?!

 

“I-I’d love to… b-but I’m... a little busy at the… moment!”

 

“WELL, I’LL BE IN WATERFALL JUST PAST THE TRASH DUMP. YOU SOUND OUT OF BREATH, ARE YOU OK?”

 

“Yea, Papyrus… just….” He looks behind to see the other gaining up on him,. “GETTING MY CARDIO IN!!! GOTTA KEEP MY… SOUL HEALTHY, YOU KNOW?!”

 

There was a pause, then a Nye hehe! “PERFECT! SOUNDS LIKE FUN! CALL BACK LATER!” He hangs up and Alpha keeps going, not stopping for anything, not even seeing the scenery change to a lava setting.

 

Crossing a bridge, he sees a water cooler and goes over to grab a drink, looking back at Undyne… who had slowed to a crawl.

 

“So… hot… armor…” he collapsed on the ground.

 

“No!” He looked around, then to the water he held, and walked up and poured it on Zetto’s face. “You may have tried to kill me, but you are a regular fish out of water… this might help…”

 

After a bit, the other opened his one exposed eye, and looked up to Alpha, who smiled.

 

“You… helped me?” Alpha nodded. He got up and backed away slightly, then walked away to Alpha’s confusion… Maybe that’s what he needed to show Undyne, that he was kind after all.

 

He breathed a heavy sigh, and turned around. A huge white building loomed above him, making Alpha’s jaw drop. “Oh… oh wow… That’s… small…”

 

_It’s where we have to go now… in there is Doctor Alphys… but you have the choice to go there… or hang out with Papyrus and Undyne._

 

Alpha nodded, “Alright… First things first, though…” He goes to the cooler and chugs water, gasping once he is done, “WATER… I needed that… oh my god…”


End file.
